Viewing the human experience through the foods we share.
I’ve been grappling with things for a long time now. Johnny Killmore as a “brand” isn’t really a brand. It’s job is to say “this is who I am and what I do, collaborate with me.” It does that job, but the identity isn’t the same as a brand. I’ve been a sidecar racer, mechanic, musician, writer/blogger, photographer, marksmanship instructor, and constantly tried to get work as a precision driver, endurance racer, tour guide, and travel writer.
As a brand that’s definitely confusing, which is also why 90% of the people who read this blog are personal friends of mine or people I’ve collaborated with. I don’t really have a desire to change that, but I do want my writings to go out to more than just friends and colleagues. To that aim, I have created Ride>Eat>Repeat (RER). This project will allow me to write with a more specific voice, so readers know what to expect with each upcoming post.
Instead of a post about travel, then a post about ethereal life philosophy and then another about a Biker B-movie I just watched, RER will look at culture and identity through the lens of food. How did poutine become a national treasure of Canada when just 50-years ago it was a local dish for poor people and drunks staggering home from the bar? How did the decidedly German Frankfurter turn into the all-American hot dog? How did the taco switch from corn to flour tortillas as it moved northward? Why is gas station fried chicken the best in town throughout the south, but not even a “thing” on the west coast?
I don’t want to rehash the manifesto here; you can just go to the About Page and get a better idea of what RER is aiming at, or read an even shorter intro on the Home Page. I’m populating an Events Calendar as well, trying to locate hyper-local type events but spanning all of North America. Obviously I’ll need help with that so if you know of a church fish fry or a raspberry harvest parade or a testicle festival (Oklahoma has more “calf fry” festivals than any other state, in case you were wondering), send an email to info@rideeatrepeat.net.
An opening salvo
The blog itself will have long reads as it’s crown jewel: deep dives into a specific cuisine and how it turned into a regional or national identifier for generations of people. Some will be cultural like how Indian fry bread was the product of abject poverty but is now considered a treat. Others will be more technical, like how an attempt to fry bread evenly caused someone to create the doughnut (and why do we spell it donut now, even when spell-checkers flag it?).
My first deep dive is on my favorite food: the taco. A working man’s attempt to keep dirt off of their lunch while working the silver mines of southern Mexico turned the tortilla from a scoop into an envelope, and a new food was born. I see the taco like a sort of Indiana Jones or Lewis & Clarke, moving throughout the continent and adapting as needed for the climate and living off of what is available. The flour vs. corn debate is a modern one, because in Sonora the Spanish missionaries planted wheat, which tolerates the dry heat of northern Mexico better than the thirsty tropical grass that is corn.
The taco’s story was so deep that I had to break the piece into two parts. I’ll release Part-2 as next month’s feature, and it will chronicle the taco as it crossed the Rio Grande, met the Chili Queens of San Antonio, and took on new ingredients. In fact, cumin is one of the most important flavors in certain tacos meats (especially the ground beef style found in TexMex) and the taco found it by way of the Canary Islands. How? You’ll have to wait until Part 2.
And that’s not all… <wink>
Eventually I hope to have a map built of restaurants with a unique vibe or signature dish, which will go in the Resources page (currently an empty page on the site). That will be a more persistent tool than the event calendar, and I’d love help populating that map so drop me a line with your must-stop places on road trips (again, email info@rideeatrepeat.net).
And since this website spreads out through North America, it will also go into travel food and not just staples found on the kitchen table at home. I’ll have shorter reads on humble foods like the gas station burrito or how I fell in love with samosas because so many Seik truck drivers in the US needed a vegetarian snack. While I travel the back roads and love to wax poetically about the mom & pop diners of the continent (and I will), sometimes it actually is about the destination and not the ride, so I take the interstates and hit up the chain restaurants.
And it reminds me there is no reason to poo poo all over Denny’s or Waffle House: they are not pretending to be anything more than what they are. And hey, if I’m brave enough to try a gut-bomb at the local greasy spoon or fried testicles at a calf fry, I surely can take on the weird foods the fast food world has, like fried mac n’ cheese bites or Burger King© tacos. No they totally have them, just only in select locations, and they’re actually good! Well, by fast food taco standards.
That’s the whole thing. It’s about managing expectations. When you stop creating an expectation and you just try a damn bite of birria de chivo (birria is made from pork, but chivo means goat, as in goat meat) or a rocky mountain oyster (yep, that’s a deep fried testicle), you can experience the taste and texture as it is—not compared to your expectation.
The ask
And yes, I now humbly ask that you check out the site. I’d love feedback about page loading times too. When I’m on a private browser everything is fine, but when logged in as an administrator, the pages take about 10 seconds to load, which is an eternity for a first-time viewer. I’d love help populating the map and the events calendar (anywhere in North America, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico), ideas and criticisms, leads on places to check out personally, and your thoughts in general.
I also ask that you check out RER’s Facebook page and Instagram feed. If you’re on Twitter I also have a handle on there, but it’s not going to be very active. The biggest thing you can do though is to share this post, and if you like what you see, comment and share on my Part 1 of the taco’s history. If you are already “sold” and can’t wait for part 2, sign up for the mailing list.
It’s the same deal as the weekly digest for Johnny Killmore: it goes out once a week if there are new posts. Unlike the digest though, I hope to actually have new things to share with each dispatch for RER, whereas I never change the introduction message for the Johnny Killmore weekly email.
If you want to try your hand at story-telling about how food an culture intersect, Ride>Eat>Repeat is absolutely set up to have guest posts. I don’t have a submission guide or anything like that—just drop an email and tell me the rough idea for what you want to write.
Thanks for being a part of the action. I know the Johnny Killmore world is one of extremes. I’m either on some cool road trip and updating daily or I’m under a blanket ignoring the entire universe. I’m creating RER to have a bit of a north star, to keep the wild swings of my life more in check and give me something to stay excited about. Consider being a part of that by signing up to the mailing list and sending your feedback.
Where the signal fades and the flavor kicks in: that is where Ride>Eat>Repeat wants to live.
#projectRER
Johnny Killmore 